Learn how to play poker tournaments

When you’re new to poker, a cash game is probably where you’ll start. You sit down to play and when you’ve won (or lost) enough, you just get up and go. A poker tournament on the other hand, can seem a bit daunting.

The reality is tournaments are just a different form of poker. Once you’ve won a few prizes and realised you can handle the competition, you might decide it’s your favourite way to play.

Whether it’s the World Poker Tour or a big online event, there are some essential tournament tactics you need to know. In this section, we take you through the basics, including rebuys and making your stack size work for you.

Shuffle up and deal, folks. It’s time for your first tournament - you can check out our poker tournaments schedule to find a few games or you can read on just to brush up on tournament basics!

In this section, we walk you through your first tournament, including:

• How tournaments work
• How do rebuys work in tournaments?
• Prizes and deals
• Where to start

Before the tournament starts, all players pay an entry fee and buy-in. This gets you a number of chips and your seat at the table. From then on, it’s a simple knockout situation where you keep playing until your chips run out. The winner is the player who ends up holding all the chips.

To add to the atmosphere, the blinds usually get bigger by set amounts at specific times as the game goes on. In later rounds, there’s often an ante (a fixed bet everyone pays before the first deal) as well.

In any tournament, you’ll always know the prize pool in advance – which will help you work out if the money you’re putting in is worth it. Bear in mind that runners-up often get something too.

There can be quite a gap between first prize and fifth prize though. In which case, the final table will sometimes cut a deal to split the money. Result.

Ready for your first tournament? We say try a few low-cost Sit & Go tounaments before chasing the big prizes. Our page on Sit & Go tactics is a great place to start. 

Here we’ll give you a little more insight into tournament play, including:

• Choosing your approach
• Tournament type
• A question of skill
• What would you do?

Before you start playing tournaments, it’s worth taking a moment to work out your tactics. Yes, you need to win hands and chips, but some situations aren’t as clear cut as they look.

Take this classic poker dilemma:

It's the first hand of a live tournament and you're the big blind. Everybody folds except the small blind, who goes all-in. You accidentally see he has a suited ace and king. You’ve got two queens. What should you do?

In many ways, there’s no right answer to this question. It really depends on where you’re coming from as a player.

According to a lot of experts, your objective in a tournament is simple: don’t go broke. This means avoiding close gambles for large portions of your chips whenever you can.

Say (as with the above example), you're a 57% favourite over your opponent. In a cash game, that’s definitely worth a call. But in a tournament, 43% of the time you’d be out. Based on the estimated value (the average outcome if you did this over and over), you’re never going to win.

There’s also the type of tournament. If the first prize is much bigger than the second, then you should gamble to give yourself the best chance. Likewise, in short-stacked game where the blinds keep going up, the clock is against you, so it makes sense to press ahead while you can.

In a typical single-table online tournament, though, it’s not about individual wins as much as defending and growing your stack. In which case you don’t want to risk getting knocked out at any time for a relatively small profit.

Most poker theory tends to assume that you’re a pretty experienced player. If that’s the case, you’ll have plenty of chances to outsmart your opponents later on, so why take the risk?

If you’re a new player, you’re relying on odds, not advanced strategy, to see you through. In which case 57% is not a bad bet to take.

To get you in the tournament frame of mind, here are some more scenarios to think about.

Q. It's the bubble stage (the part just before prizes) of a multi-table tournament and everyone’s folded up to you in the small blind. You have terrible cards, but put in a big bet to steal the blinds. Then the big blind goes all-in, a fraction ahead of your bet. What should you do?

A. Easy. Gamble. It might not pay off, but it’s not costing you that much extra to call, considering this is your chance for a prize position.

Q. It's the middle stage of a tournament, pre-flop, and you are one of two chip leaders at the table (he’s a bit ahead of you – the other players don’t even come close). He moves all-in, but you have two aces. Do you call or fold?

A. Again, this is obvious. You fold, even though you’ve got the best hand. This player is the only one who can send you home, so if you call, you're going to be out the tournament about 38% of the time. Better to pick off the less risky opponents first and go after the big money later.

Q. You’re down to the tournament final with just one opponent, whose stack size is about a quarter of yours. She moves all-in. You’ve only got a 2-2. Should you call?